Twisted Minds
by Garagos
Summary: Gol and Maia escape the silo and enter the Rift Gate with one thought on their minds: revenge. Meanwhile, strange things are happening in Haven City, and naturally Jak is called upon to fix them. Rated T just in case.


_**Twisted Minds**_

My love for Gol makes me want to kick Naughty Dog sometimes. HE WAS THE ORIGINAL BAD GUY MWA! That's like ditching Robotnik, or killing off Bowser, dangit. (cries) Okay, maybe not **exactly** like it, but you get my point. I decided to write this story to ease my pain, and tell the world that I think Gol should have come back in the later games. (not that I think Erol and the others were undeserving...bwa I love Erol)

You know I don't own these kids. So why bother doing a long drawn out disclaimer? There shouldn't be any OCs in this, because the first time I wrote this, the girl I made became a Mary-Sue in the vein of Melfina. (the worst kind, I think)If I do require any, though, they'll be background. (if an MS worms her way in, shoot me xD) Pairings-wise, I'm sticking with the canons. No yaoi, I'm afraid (snaps fingers).

Read and review...if you think it's thedumbest thing you've ever read, please tell me. xDDD And PLEASE ignore the word-smashing. Apparently thissitelikes to smash words together that don't need to be together. (and delete words, apparently)If it does it again after publishing...oh well. (dies)

* * *

"_Finally…we're finally free, sister." _

_These were the first words from Gol's aching throat as he felt the warm sunshine on his metallic face, a sensation he had not experienced for weeks. Not wishing to deprive his poor sister of the lovely warmth he was enjoying, he pulledMaia to the surface, mournfully watching her beautiful silver hair dripping with the horrendous black liquid. She lifted her head to the sun as well, and closed her eyes. Her quivering breath grew stronger with each inhale and exhale, and she finally had the strength to look back at her elderly brother. Each wheeze seemed to rack his frame, but it was nothing new; he had never really adapted to the new robotic body after the accident._

"_I...can't believe…we made it, Gol." Maia whispered._

"_Nor can I..." he paused to gasp for air in his usual fashion, "It's been…weeks…months…hasn't it?"_

"_Something like that." Images of the fight that had condemned them to their vile prison raced through her mind. An old rage was born anew. "The boy…we shall make him pay."_

"_Most definitely. As soon as we recover our strength, we'll find him...and make him regret...the day he dared to ruin us."_

_It was little under a week's exhausted travel that brought them to the small village where that insufferable child resided. The animosity in their hearts grew with each passing day; every thought of theirs was either bent on survival or the destruction of the child of White Eco. But one look at the small village of Sandover changed their minds._

_The already quite shoddy houses were decrepit beyond repair, like someone had launched boulders at the walls until the houses collapsed on themselves. Both the sky and every blade of grass looked blackened to a cinder, and many grayish-blue monsters, varying in size, watched their approach with mild wariness amidst the rubble of the houses. Yellow orbs of light glowed from their skulls through the darkness, almost daring the siblings to come closer_

"_What happened here, I wonder…" Maia murmured to herself. She nearly stepped on the back of one of the monsters as it scurried across her path._

"_I don't know (gasp)…but whatever it was (gasp)…we should be careful ourselves." Gol replied. He looked over his shoulder and let out a little gasp of surprise. "Ah, Samos' hut…" he sneered, turning to face the dilapidated structure with a glimmer of malice in his eyes, "What do you suppose we'll find in there, sister? Nothing too gruesome, I hope."_

"_Judging by what happened here, I'd say we'd be lucky to find anything in that house." Maia tilted her head to the side, "What's that?"_

"…_no. It couldn't be, could it?" Upon catching sight of the object in question, Gol hovered around the side of the carcass of the house, his eyes growing wider and wider in interest. Maia followed, less entranced by the possibilities._

_It was just as he had assumed. The Precursor Rift Gate from atop the Dark Eco silo had been moved to Samos' hut. After briefly considering _how_ they could have moved it, he began to wonder _why_. What did that senile sage know that he did not?_

"_What's special about this thing, brother?" _

"_It's ancient Precursor technology, Maia…I'm not even entirely sure (gasp) what it does…"_

"_Ancient? Even more so than you?" Gol ignored her joke and hovered closer. But as he did, a flock of the small monsters came to perch on the round gate, their yellow eyes watching them both ominously. Nothing moved for a few moments, then a strange thing happened: the monsters flew away from the gate and reassembled on three sliding panels arranged around the length of the ring. One group pushed a panel two clicks down; another pushed theirs down three; while yet another flock only pushed theirs down one. Upon the last click, the gate sprung to life. Smaller panels began to float away from the main ring with seemingly little other purpose than decoration, and at the center formed clouds of blue and purple smoke that looked as if they were being sucked to the other side. The entire center of the gate glowed with an otherworldly radiance that almost hypnotized the siblings with its beauty._

"_Gol…do you think…" Maia began, "do you think they want us to go in?"_

"_It seems that way, doesn't it?" he grinned, "We didn't find the boy here, but maybe these creatures know his whereabouts." He extended his arm to them, which one bird-like monster took as a perch, "Can't you hear it? There's Dark Eco inside of all of them, isn't there? They're calling out to us, asking us to avenge the wrongs done to them..."_

"_Yes…I may not be a Sage, but even I can feel the darkness in them. As fellow brethren of Dark Eco, we cannot deny them our assistance." She took his free hand in hers, the hand that still was bound in flesh. "Let's go, brother."_

_The sensation of time travel was unlike anything they had ever experienced. Even falling into the sea of Dark Eco did not feel as jarring and unusual as entering the rift. Gol could barely keep his eyes open; his hand squeezed hard around Maia's instinctively, looking for something to anchor himself to. The bird accompanied them into the rift, and by looking at its placid expression, one might reasonably guess it had done this trip before several times. Its yellow eyes glared forward into the impending light. They came closer and closer until…_

_The siblings crashed onto cold concrete, but the bird flapped away just in time to avoid impact. Rubbing her head gingerly, Maia groaned and glanced about their surroundings._

"_Let's hope we don't have to do _that_ again soon." she muttered, pulling back her palm to check for blood._

"_Where did you take us?" Gol growled towards the bird, which was now demurely sitting on a trash bin watching them, "Where is this place?"_

"_Hello, Kras City! It's a beautiful morning in the toughest town on the planet!" boomed a loud voice from behind them. Gol and Maia swiveled around, ready for a fight, but only found a giant TV screen mounted on the side of a skyscraper. Shouting into the screen was a man with fair skin and wavy brown hair. His perfectly white teeth reflected the light of the early morning sun that peeked from behind the buildings, and made the bird wince._

"_Where the hell…" Maia stood up shakily and took a look around the corner. Again, Gol questioned the bird. This time, the creature flew to his side again, and crowed in his ear. Though it was no language that ordinary people could understand, the learned sage of Dark Eco knew exactly the words the bird wished to express. It was a talent he had acquired through reading the old documents regarding the Hora-Quan, his greatest inspiration and fascination of his youth._

"_Maia…" Gol regained his bearings and made his way to Maia's side, "We have been sent (gasp) into the future. This is…our world."_

_

* * *

Sometimelater… _

"This is one for the trophy case, eh Dax?" Jak beamed, admiring his reflection in the golden Kras City championship trophy. It had just arrived in the Naughty Ottsel that morning, three weeks after the final race; Rayn's mischief in Kras City had made it difficult for anyone to operate without her permission. It had taken some serious convincing (and a kiss on the cheek from Jak) to wrench the trophy from her hands, but the "Speed Twins" felt it was worth it.

"You bet it is!" Daxter exclaimed, "This thing is so huge, I bet I could fit in here!" To test his theory, he clambered up the side, using the handles for footholds, and spilled over the rim. His goggles clanked loudly on the inside of the metal cup, but a quick thumbs-up let them know he was okay. Keira couldn't help but giggle.

"Way to go, Daxter." Jak smiled. His friend's antics could always cheer him up, no matter what kind of day he was having.

"Speaking of 'going', Jak…" Keira began dangerously, "Where and when are we going on our date?"

"Uh, wherever and whenever you want to go?" Being the suave Casanova he was, Jak hadn't given the matter much thought. He had been postponing the date since the end of the Kras City championship for hundreds upon thousands of reasons: first he had to celebrate with "his boys", then he had to go to Spargus with Sig to hunt down some MetalHeads, and after that he swore up and down that he knew Razer had plans to murder him if he left the house. These were only a few among many, but Keira's favorite was the one about having to deliver Eco Ore to the deceased Krew. She had been a reasonable sport about the excuses, though, and only chewed him out for the miserable excuse concerning Krew.

"Wellllll…" she looked up towards the ceiling thoughtfully, "The stadium where they held the Monster Truck Rallies is open again, so we could go see one of those. Or maybe a gun show, or maybe—"

"Wait. You mean you don't want to go shopping, or go sit through a movie or anything like that?"

"Jak, why would I want to do stuff like that? How long have we known each other?" Keira shot back, and crossed her arms over her chest, "I'm offended that you think I'd like that stupid stuff."

"No no, that's not what I meant! I've just always heard—" Jak's stammering did not help her mood in the slightest.

"Geez Jak, she's your girlfriend! You're so clueless when it comes to women!" Daxter chimed in, perfectly on cue. The blonde was considering throwing him a rude gesture when the door swung open.

"Do I hear a married couple in here?" Torn chuckled.

"The Tattooed Wonder has better hearing than ever!" Daxter declared sarcastically, "What do _you_ want, Torn?"

"Oh, nothing really. I just wanted a look at the trophy we won in person. Oh, and there's someone to see you." He shrugged his left shoulder towards the counter as he strode across the room, allowing the previously unnoticed Tess to leap upon her lover with an excited squeal. The room inside the trophy was limited, though, and this maneuver seemed to be a bad idea. Torn anchored the trophy tothe counter as the two Ottsels tried to arrange themselves properly inside.

"It's been a while. How's Ashelin?" Jak asked casually. His attempt to ignore Keira's anger failed, and he was somewhat relieved when she stomped off to the back room.

"She's fine. But she hasn't stopped telling me _'I told you so'_ about Rayn since we got off the boat." he massaged his temples and sighed, "Women, huh?"

"Yeah. No kidding." Jak laughed nervously.

"Sig called me last night. He said that there are some more nasty MetalHeads in the area of the city that need some pruning. Wanna give 'em hell with us, Jak?"

"Sure!" As soon as the word came out of his mouth, he caught sight of a frowning Keira in the corner of his eye, "Uh, actually…I've got a date tonight." The frown melted away, and she skipped off to the back room with a smile.

"Fine. I understand." Torn helped himself to a glass of beer when the Ottsels had stopped rocking the trophy around, anddowned the entire mug in one gulp.

"Hey, Jak!" Daxter interrupted, "If you're going out tonight, then what am I supposed to do? Sit around the Naughty Ottsel all night getting drunk or something?"

"I'm sure we can find _something_ to do" Tess answered for him, tweaking Daxter's nose affectionately.

"…yeah, on second thought, have fun, Jak."

"Jak, my boy!" Samos' voice ripped through the calm atmosphere like a knife through butter, "I have urgent news to report!"

"What is it? Is someone hurt?" Jak asked, getting to his feet. It was very unlike Samos to burst into a room without any kind of warning.

"No, not yet…but…"

"But what?"

"Daddy?" Keira emerged from the back room. Her eyes fell on her frenzied father, and immediately clouded with worry, "Dad, what's wrong?"

"The Lurkers…they're forming organized revolts in the mines!" he breathed, "They're walking out on their work, but nobody seems to know where they're going…"

"Why? What's making them rebel?" Torn thought aloud, "Ashelin made sure that their working conditions improved since Baron Praxis was killed. Why can't Captain Brutter talk some sense into them?"

"It's not her fault. I have a hunch that there's more to this than meets the eye." He paused to throw a hopeful glance at Jak, then continued when no lights came on, "I got here as fast as I could because I wanted to see if we could organize a meeting with Ashelin to discuss this."

"If it's got you this worried…"Jak glanced back at Keira, "I guess we'll have to put off our date one more time, Keira."

"It's all right." she said with a smile. Smiling weakly in return, Jak mentally thanked the Precursors that she understood.

"C'mon Daxter, we have to go." Jak approached the bar. Upon looking inside the trophy, he found the two Ottsels asleep, Daxter entwined in Tess' arms. As sweet as this scene was, he found it incredible that Daxter could sleep through anything short of a MetalHead raid. Even then, one of the monsters would have to breathe Daxter up its nose for him to wake up.

"Mmmfrr…not now, Tess…I just got to sleep…" he mumbled, turning over on his stomach.

"DAXTER!" Waking him up had become a group effort now, everyone chiming in with varying degrees of annoyance. One eye opened, and then closed upon seeing everyone positioned around the trophy's edge. Unwilling to wait any longer, Jak flicked the side with his fingers, and made the trophy ring like a gong. The resonations shocked the two from their fake sleep, and Daxter went with no more fuss.

* * *

_Whee I totally made this up as I went. xDDDDD It starts out cool at the beginning, but then at the end it seems rushed, I know. --;;_

_**NOTE ABOUT THE RIFT GATE DESCRIPTION:** I wrote that part without actually going back and looking at the first scene of Jak II to see how it works. I was forced to go back and change some of it, but the part about the "sliding panels" will just have to be ignored plz kthnxbai. (I didn't know how to write it...) It was so bad…omfg._

_And I'm sorry about the cliffhanger…I just figured that would be a good place to stop.(shot) I'll get cracking on the next chapter soon._

_I am a Gol fangirl to the maxx0rz. I'm warning you now, just in case he has more dialogue than Maia whenever they show up. He was just so COOOOOOL (shot)_

_Also, whenever I write Gol's frequent gasps for air, should I write (gasp) or just (…)? I'm not really sure, and if the (gasp) s annoy someone, I could change it. Oo Gol himself will probably seem iffy throughout this fic. Seeing as The Precursor Legacy told us little to nothing about Gol and Maia's past (like why Gol's a robot heLLO!), a lot of his past things will be made up by me. _

_And now for the SECOND publishing...(dies)_


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